Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to give my support to the needy and vulnerable families in my electorate of Paterson. The Social Security and Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Weekly Payments) Bill 2010 will allow these families to access support payments twice a fortnight instead of once. It will be the responsibility of the secretary of the department to speak with the Centrelink customers to decide who needs weekly payments of social security, the family tax benefit and the baby bonus. The measures introduced through this bill will help families manage their weekly budget and will provide more timely payments for those struggling most. In particular the bill targets those who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. It will reduce the amount of time people have to wait for the next support payment when they have a particular need. According to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 3,500 recorded homeless people in New South Wales in 2006. In the Hunter there were more than 200, with 51 in Port Stephens alone. Some charities suggest this number is actually far greater and, to make matters worse, growing higher ever year.

As reported by ABC Newcastle on 4 March 2009:

An extra 7,600 people were made homeless in New South Wales last year, when interest rates and rents were at their height, but the State Government is expecting the figures to get worse.

The latest figures released by the state’s Housing Department show around 22,500 people sought temporary accommodation in 2007-2008—an average increase of 643 people a month compared to the previous year.

These numbers are simply devastating. I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like to be forced to spend a night on the street, with nowhere to turn to have a roof put over your head and no-one to help keep your family safe and warm. This is a scary reality for far too many people, and the Rudd Labor government needs to do more to help the needy in our community. Our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, promised to do more. In fact, in 2008 he promised to halve the homeless rate by 2020. But, as the figures I have mentioned show, homelessness so far has only increased. The Prime Minister has conceded this himself. Unless something changes—and changes soon—our number of homeless will only skyrocket further.

I say this because the cost of living, which our Prime Minister also promised to fix, has spiralled out of control. If families cannot afford to eat, cannot afford to drive and cannot afford child care while they go off to work then chances are they will be forced onto the street. Therefore, we absolutely cannot afford this continuum of broken promises from Prime Minister Rudd. Let us consider the rising cost of living in Australia with a look at grocery prices. The Rudd Labor government promised to put downward pressure on food costs but, after wasting more than $7 million on failed GROCERYchoice websites, bills have increased. The Daily Telegraph reported on 4 February this year:

GROCERY prices have soared with the cost of a standard basket of goods rising by about $10 in three months.

Figures released yesterday show families were slugged far more for meat, fruit and vegetables, beer and various other grocery items in the three months to Christmas, compared with the three months to September.

Prime Minister Rudd’s living costs broken promise No. 1: groceries.

Now let us move on to power. First Paterson families copped a 20 per cent rise in electricity bills in July 2009. Then the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal released its draft price report on 15 December. This report states that power bills will rise by up to 62 per cent by 2013. That is right—in just three years we could see prices increase by around $900 a year for the average household. According to IPART almost half of this price rise is to pay for the Rudd Labor government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, Prime Minister Rudd’s tax on everything, which will do absolutely nothing for the environment. It makes a mockery of his promise to make things cheaper. Prime Minister Rudd’s living costs broken promise No. 2: electricity

I will move on to fuel costs. In 2007 opposition leader Rudd said that the Howard government had:

… lost touch with working families under financial pressure, not just from interest rates, not just from rising rents, but grocery and petrol prices …

He suggested that he as Prime Minister would do something to fix this. But, after a failed and very costly Fuelwatch system, nothing has been delivered. As my constituent Jeff wrote online in January:

Today … I paid 132.9 cents for E10 at … Nelson Bay … Your ave Sydney price 120.9

I wrote to the Rudd Labor government’s minister, Dr Emerson, on behalf of Jeff last year, but to date he still has not replied. Meanwhile drivers in my electorate are still being forced to pay higher than average prices and a few petrol stations are being monitored by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The Australian Institute of Petroleum website also shows how families in my electorate are paying higher prices for fuel. According to its figures for Forster, locals were paying 116c a litre in May last year, while now they are paying 128c per litre. That is a rise of more than 10c per litre. Meanwhile, to add further insult, Sydney figures show city drivers paid just 120c per litre on average last month. Paterson is less than two hours up the highway from Sydney, yet we pay 10c per litre more. Here we have Prime Minister Rudd’s living costs broken promise No. 3: petrol.

Finally, let us look at child care, where the Prime Minister has again been exposed as all talk and no action. A report in the Daily Telegraph on 23 January revealed how the Rudd Labor government changes to childcare standards will see parents slugged up to $40 extra per day or $200 a week. Seventy-nine per cent, or around four out of five, regional childcare centres have admitted that they will be forced to increase charges under the plan, yet nothing has been done to alleviate the problem. Child care is often relied upon by parents who go off to work and need a safe, trustworthy and secure place to leave their children. This service needs to be affordable for working mothers and fathers. Prime Minister Rudd’s living costs broken promise No. 4: child care.

I could go on to examples 5, 6, 7—the list is long. However, my point is already clear: Prime Minister Rudd needs to start delivering on his promise and take some real action to help families in Paterson and indeed across Australia afford basic costs. If he does not do so, more and more families in my electorate will be forced to seek help and could end up without a home. The Social Security and Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Weekly Payments) Bill 2010 is a positive step towards helping those who are vulnerable. But we must see even more action to stop families struggling in the first place. We must have a multipronged approach to really tackle this problem and to make a change. Allow me to read an article from one of my local newspapers, the Maitland Mercury. On 19 February, an article by Emma Swain read:

Maitland’s Samaritans emergency relief centre is almost out of food and vouchers as an unprecedented number of residents face financial crisis.

The Samaritans’ 11 emergency relief centres have nearly exhausted all food, grocery and electricity vouchers with little sign of replenishment.

Typically February is a slower month for the Hunter-based charity giant, but this year is proving to be an exception with demand for vouchers constant since Christmas.

In December 2009, the Maitland relief centre in East Maitland, recorded its busiest month in 17 years.

‘I can’t remember a time where we have had nothing to offer those seeking assistance,’ Samaritans chief executive officer Cec Shevels said.

‘If the next six months continue with the same trends in emergency relief we will have a 40 per cent increase on last year.’

Samaritans have assisted 3011 individuals and families through emergency relief along with 4000 dependent children in the past three months.

About 30 per cent of these people had not sought Samaritans’ assistance in the past.

‘It’s the basic things that are pushing people to crisis point,” Mr Shevels said.

‘Those on a low income are pushed to the limit and rises in bills such as electricity and water along with skyrocketing rental payments, build up over a period of time to a point when something has to give. Often it is food on the table, so we always send people away with food from the pantry or vouchers to buy food items but with our allocation exhausted, we’ve got nothing left to give those in crisis.’

What Mr Shevels explains here is that a rising number of families are under pressure because of the added living costs under this Rudd Labor government. These people, who have never struggled before and who suddenly have to rely on government assistance, may need the more flexible support payments that this bill delivers.

Mr Shevels also demonstrates the amazing work done by volunteers and groups in the Paterson community. These people, who number in their thousands, give of their time to support our region’s most vulnerable, and I cannot thank them enough for their efforts. They are often the last resort for people who have nowhere else to turn, and they do a wonderful job in helping people financially, physically and emotionally.

Another example in my electorate is the Raymond Terrace Neighbourhood Centre. This centre is headed by Colleen Whittle and runs entirely on a not-for-profit basis. It offers a drop-in centre, financial assistance, counselling, advocacy and referral, as well as crisis accommodation. The centre allows people to get help in a caring environment without discrimination and has helped many people who would otherwise have ended up on our streets. Unfortunately, because there is such demand on welfare services at the moment, support services simply cannot cope.

As noted in the article from the Maitland Mercury, not-for-profit groups are running out of supplies, because there is such an overwhelming demand. Today, I would ask anyone who can spare a donation, even in these tough times, to give what they can to local charities. I have seen the spirit of giving from so many of my constituents firsthand, and I know what they are capable of.

Many people are doing it tough. Many people are relying on government assistance. Many people are out on the streets, despite the Prime Minister’s promise to cut homelessness. This is simply not good enough. In real terms, across the Paterson electorate, more than 20,000 people relied on the family tax benefit last year to run their homes and support their children. It is vital that they are looked after. On top of this, more than 1,400 baby bonus payments were made in the 2007-08 financial year so that parents could provide the essentials to their babies. Weekly payments would help many of these people manage their family budgets and stop them becoming homeless.

To date, there has been little action on homelessness from the Rudd Labor government. The Prime Minister announced the boost to the Personal Helpers and Mentors Program, an initiative first announced in 2006 by then Prime Minister John Howard. However, Prime Minister Rudd has committed just $10 million to this program. Compare this to the $250 million he recently gave commercial television station operators or the $200 million that he has wasted on the inflated and disastrous insulation rebates—not to mention the $50 million about to be spent to rectify it. It appears awfully inadequate, especially for those Australians who will sleep tonight on benches, in parks and on the street.

The Social Security and Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Weekly Payments) Bill 2010 is a bill to help struggling families and to prevent at risk people becoming homeless. It gives more flexibility to the social security system and can help people balance their weekly budgets by reducing the time between payments. Trained professionals will decide who needs this flexibility and for how long.

However, the Rudd Labor government needs to do more to stop the rising cost of living which is forcing people out of their homes. Prime Minister Rudd promised to do so; he must deliver. I clearly remember his election commitment to apply ‘downward pressure on prices’. I also remember his promise that the buck would stop with him. Well, Prime Minister Rudd, it is time for this downward pressure to begin, because prices are only headed up and up. Finally, I would urge anyone who has the time to volunteer to help those vulnerable people in our community. More can be done to make sure everyone in our community has a place to call home, and the Rudd Labor government must make this a priority.

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